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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 6, 1993)
■ ■ ■ onday, September 6,1993 The Battalion Editorial Board CHRIS WHITLEY, editor in chief |lillPHILLIPS, managing editor MARK EVANS, city editor DAVE THOMAS, night news editor ANAS BEN-MUSA, Aggielife editor IELINDA BLANCARTE, night news editor MICHAEL PLUMER, sports editor HACK HARRISON, opinion editor WILLIAM HARRISON, sports editor KYLE BURNETT, photo editor &USIV&SS M KTLC FUlb m -ROAlMKft. TMt mit IT CtT5. > hiwr our ma_. ■so incdK, 1m j | Labor EDITORIAL pains Students must hustle for jobs As we sit back to celebrate iior Day, it is ironic to note i dismal state of the econo- 5 today. Wages are down and jobs {scarce. College graduates tering the workforce face a iren job market, where they sforced to compete witn ter, more experienced appli es for the same low-paymg isitions. Inaddition, the newest gen- 3lion of workers is expected liave a lower standard of ig than the preceding gen ital - for tne first time in isnation's history, large corporations such as Hand General Motors have inned massive layoffs and liacks. Just recently, GTE, a ras-based company, an- iinced it intends to make Stic personnel cuts. This week, a study by the ronomics Policy Institute raid a disturbing trend in nation's economy. Accord- ijjtothe report, entry-level ices are shrinking. Wages Jblue collar workers fell 5.9 ircent over the last four arsand white-collar wages 112,4 percent. In addition, over half of the new jobs created in the first half of 1993 were part-time po sitions that offerea no benefits. Many job seekers looking for full-time work were forced to take part-time jobs instead, resulting in underemploy ment. College students are one of the main victims of this un deremployment. Forced by class schedules to take part- time jobs at odd hours, stu dents often find themselves working longer just to make ends meet. For future graduates, the job market also looks bleak. The chances of people with college degrees finding a job in their career field are de creasing. This is why it is important for students to think about employment before gradua tion. The Texas A&M Career Center, academic advisers and student groups can all help the prospective graduate in the great job hunt. Students should prepare for the workplace long before they stand in the graduation line, so they won't end up standing in the unemploy ment line. Opinion The Battalion Page 11 Talk radio: Public Enemy Number 1? Congress, FCC Fairness Doctrine threaten free speech ELIOT WILLIAMS Columnist B e afraid — be very afraid. It is becoming clear that Congress is scared of the Ameri can public and is act ing to save itself. They've started by attempting to take away the right of free speech. What right will they revoke next? The paranoia on Capitol Hill is not un justified. The last few years have witnessed uncontested public discontent with Con gress. The recent fervor over term limits, the check bouncing scandal and problems with the House post office have our congressmen running scared. Debate over President Clin ton’s budget resulted in over 100,000 calls an hour into the Capitol Hill switchboard, tem porarily shutting it down. Congress has blamed this recent surge of attacks on talk radio and the likes of Rush Limbaugh. According to the Sept. 1,1993 edition of The Wall Street Journal, 40 percent of all Americans listen to some sort of radio talk show. Rush Limbaugh alone has a self- proclaimed audience of 20 million listeners a week. A new study from the Times Mirror Cen ter for the People and the Press claims that: "American public opinion is being distorted and exaggerated by the voices that dominate the airwaves of talk radio, dog the White House switchbocud ... and respond to call-in polls." Talk radio callers, the study professes, are "rabidly anti-Congressional in their view point." The upsurge in public interest is causing some congressmen to respond with legisla tion. Rep. Bill Hefner says talk radio "scares me." He contends that negative attacks on Congress are "getting to the point where we're not able to govern." Talk about passing the buck. Hefner and some of his fellow congress men are responding to the public's renewed interest in government by resurrecting the decrepit Fairness Doctrine — a policy dreamt up by Federal Communication Commission staffers in 1949 which claimed to require broadcasters to provide equal time to all sides of "controversial" issues. The Reagan Administration killed the policy in 1987 after proving that Congress hadn't approved it. The Fairness Doctrine in practice, coupled with the FCC's power to renew broadcast li censes, could be used to censor whatever me dia personality the administration opposed. The Nixon administration used the doc trine to torment left-wing broadcasters, while Bill Rudder, President Kennedy's assistant secretary of commerce, said of the Kennedy administration: "Our strategy was to use the Fairness Doctrine to challenge and harass right-wing broadcasters and hope the chal lenges would be so costly to them that they would be inhibited and decide it was too ex pensive to continue." Look out, Rush Limbaugh. Democracy has always thrived on the free flow of information. George Orwell, in "1984," claimed that easiest way for govern ment to dominate its citizens is to control the words they use. Big Brother was effective in limiting thought to simple terms where no debate was possible. Congress is learning the benefits of Big Brother's policies. Our society has found new and innovative ways of achieving the free flow of informa tion. Talk radio, CNN, C-SPAN, computer BBSs and newspapers are just a few of the ways American's are conversing and openly debating today. We must continue to fight for these media. Americans are sick of blatant overspend ing, and we are responding actively with phone calls and criticism. This is what democracy is about. In a true democracy, public objections would be corrected by our leaders. In America, our leaders attempt to correct the public. Congress' new efforts to subvert our free doms are alarming. The revival of the Fair ness Doctrine is just the first step down a very dangerous path. I refuse to stand idly by while Congress begins to revoke our basic rights. Joseph Sobran, a societal commentator, once said: "The essence of tyranny is govern ment without carefully defined powers, powers whose limits can be invoked by citi zens under the law." If our Bill of Rights is subject to retraction by any whim of Congress, it is clear that we are moving ever closer to the tyranny to which Sobran refers. Eliot Williams is a sophomore electrical engineer ing major THE I Editorials appearing in The Battalion reflect the views of the editorial board. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of other Battalion staff members, the Texas A&M student body, regents, administration, faculty or staff. Columns, guest columns and letters express the opinions of the authors. The Battalion encourages letters to the editor and will print as many as space allows. Letters must be 300 words or less and include the author's name, class, and phone number. We reserve the right to edit letters and guest columns for length, style, and ac t uracy. Contact the opinion editor for information on submitting guest columns. Address letters to: The Battalion - Mail Call 013 Reed McDonald l Mail stop 1111 ^. Texas A&M University College Station, TX 77843 Fax: (409) 045-2047 Slacks must acknowledge individuality to form community A si began Ll writing this • Xcolumn, it smed to address Mai point. Yet, ■lalized that the iject matter aches far into the esof many Jican-A meri ts. Ihis is the atti- Jethat all Afri- J-Americans are sghly the same. Itis a subtle atti- 4, but it is om- Jtesent. Mecided to write about it for this rea- 3and also because many blacks as well whites seem to buy into this attitude, lhat belief is far, far from the truth, icome in all shapes, sizes, and colors, ihave minds and capabilities just as foneelse does. In the black race, there ■those who are slow or intelligent, 'Hinal or law-abiding, rich or poor. TRACEY JONES Columnist boisterous or soft-spoken — just like any other people. We have bad "apples" yet we also pro duce doctors, lawyers, engineers, accoun tants and other professionals. Blacks are individuals. The method by which many grocery and drug stores organize their product lines demonstrates how this attitude af fects even the most minor and personal aspects of our lives. In one store where I frequently shop, all the hair products are grouped together — all the White Rain, all the Salon Selectives and so on. Yet, the black hair products are placed in a section of their own labeled "Ethnic Beauty." Why is that? Why is that when some black people use Salon Selectives and White Rain? Why can't all hair products be grouped together, eliminating the "eth nic" section? It is the same organizational patterns with cosmetics, by the way. As I mentioned earlier, this topic is very important in part because it is an at titude that some blacks seem to buy into also — which has serious implications for' the race as a whole. We are not acknowledging the differ ences. Perhaps this is why it is so difficult for blacks to come together as a community as Jewish and Korean people have done. The "black" category encompasses a whole range of religions, socio-economic strata, education levels, parenting styles, etc. We are not acknowledging the differences. Perhaps this is why it is so difficult for blacks to come together as a community as Jewish and Korean people have done. In knowing this, perhaps we should abandon the idea of a centralized black community and look toward a more de centralized community. For instance, it seems easier for a group of blacks who have things in com mon to come together and in turn work with other groups of blacks who have been brought together because of their commonalities. This way, there would be much less internal friction and members could spend their energy negotiating with other groups. All of this is not to say that ethnic groups have nothing whatsoever in com mon. Obviously, people from similar cul tures will have some things in common. But the type of person that you are not only encompasses culture, but environ mental experiences as well. The beliefs you are raised with deter mine how you will integrate certain ele ments of a culture. For instance, I am from a small East Texas town where rap music is not really listened to. As a matter of fact, we don't even have a rap station in my town. And although rap music hails from the African-American culture, I am acquainted with many black people who have trouble relating to the violence and intense cries of police brutality that pervades much of this music. Small towns as a whole don't appear to have the blatant displays of violence and abuse of authority that is evident in big cities. Although corruption might ex ist in small towns, it is on a much smaller, less advanced scale. But people from larger urban areas are able to relate more to this particular topic because it might be something that they witness on a frequent basis, or at least enough to know that it exists. Therefore, people from large cities and small towns can relate to different things because their environment allows for di versity, even though we are all a part of the black culture. People are individuals. Not all black men and women are slow, nor are they all sex freaks. There are intelligent black men and women who do achieve and who do participate in the honor societies and go on to live success ful, law-abiding lives. Because — Blacks are individuals. Basically, the bottom line is that truly, some things should naturally be classified according to color — and you may even buy them for that reason — but not people. Tracey Jones is a senior psychology major People created to pick between right, wrong , I must say I was stunned to learn rank Stanford believes there are only > wrongs in this world - physical Wo- Pce and theft. ■i I thought perhaps Frank had spent his summer in some free-love commune, but then again, you can't have theft of com munity property, right, Frank? I find it hard to to believe that if Frank found out his wife was cheating on him, his children habitually lied to him, and vandals had just spray-painted his car, he could simply shrug it off since "there really is no right or wrong." The fact that there are multiple views on a subject does not mean all views are morally valid. As politically incorrect as this may sound, quite often one view is right and all others are wrong. It has been my experience that people like Frank Stanford view human beings as, at best, a half-step ahead of the beasts. I, on the other hand, see man as one step below divinity. It is my sincere hope that everyone will ask themselves the following questions: Do you believe, in your heart of hearts, you are a cosmic fluke, a speck of dust on a rock circling a ball of gas, here one moment and gone forever the next? Or, do you believe you were created in the image of God, equipped with the most marvelous of machines — your mind — not only to solve problems, but to differentiate between right and wrong? This is not an attempt to give you a religious "warm fuzzy," I assure you. Your true belief in this matter is the cornerstone of how you view yourself and how you view others. It will deter mine the boundaries of your spiritual de velopment and ultimately the fate of your immortal soul. Grant Rnple Class of'94 Shuttle bus changes don't serve students PTTS has once again amazed us all with its stellar display of intelligence and efficiency. Its so called "improvements" in the intra-campus shuttle bus system are a farce. The reason for shuttles and the 20 minutes between class intervals are to al low people such as myself to get from oh, say ... Blocker to maybe ... Kleberg in time for, oh my God ... the beginning of class. As it stands, it would take at least 25 minutes to get from Blocker to Kleberg utilizing the shuttle system. If the counter-clockwise buses were still in operation, many problems such as this would be eliminated. This new sys tem may be more efficient for you, PTTS ... but, in reality, it is not for those of whom you are serving ... THE STU DENTS. Donna Prewitt and Mike Cortwll Class of '95